British cities are recovering their vibrancy as pandemic restrictions come to an end, a new report shows. The latest Top Cities: Vibrancy Ranking reports from CGA and Wireless Social show that Bristol was the most vibrant with eating-out and drinking-out sales showing modest growth from pre-covid levels with check-in numbers improving.
The report combines sales and device log-in data to assess the performance of the country’s ten most populous cities over four weeks to 12th February 2022. Across the ten cities monitored, sales were just 3% down on the same period in 2019—a sharp improvement on the 10% shortfall in the previous four weeks. However, say the report authors, “with inflation running high, sales are substantially lower than 2019 levels in real terms. Since check-in numbers are flat compared to the previous period, the improvement may be due to greater spending per head rather than increases in visits.”
Sales were also up in Manchester, lifting the city from ninth place in the last report to second in this one. Glasgow is the third-placed city, while Sheffield moves up four places to fourth.
Elsewhere in the rankings, London was in bottom place for the second time in a row, with sales and check-ins still 11% and 38% down on pre-COVID-19 levels respectively. While both figures are improvements on the previous four weeks, it suggests workers have been slow to return to the capital, and the shortfall of tourists has reduced sales further.
CGA’s client director Chris Jeffrey said: “After two very difficult years for Britain’s city centres, our report is proof of their growing vibrancy as COVID restrictions ease. Positive trends in Bristol, Manchester and elsewhere raise hopes that sales and footfall may soon return to pre-pandemic norms. However, while many consumers are making up for lost time in pubs, bars and restaurants, others remain cautious about spending as inflation mounts, and trading in London remains particularly challenging. Recovery is going to be fragile, and achieving real-terms growth will be tough amid high inflation. But it is already clear that hospitality will be pivotal to the economic revival of Britain’s cities in 2022.”
Julian Ross, founder and CEO of Wireless Social, said: “It’s really encouraging to see activity is on the rise for hospitality across UK cities, after what has been an unprecedented two years. However, sector businesses still face mounting economic challenges, with the impending rises in VAT, energy bills and inflation on the horizon. This is why we fully support UK Hospitality’s ongoing campaign to ensure the VAT rate is kept at 12.5% and the planned increase to 20% is scrapped. Measures like these are needed to ensure sales and footfall continue to climb, which is vitally important to our industry’s recovery.”
